#MOMBOSS | Stephanie Liu - "Why Evidence Matters in Parenting"

Photo | Jeremy Mo

Hi, my name is Stephanie Liu and I am a family doctor and clinical lecturer at the University of Alberta, and a first time momma! I started the blog lifeofdrmom.com because I think it is hard for parents to be able to differentiate inaccurate, possibly dangerous information from reliable credible information online. Life of Dr Mom provides parents with credible information for parenting, child wellness and maternal wellness. Hope you like my blog!

"Why Evidence Matters in Parenting"

In October of 2018, I launched lifeofdrmom.com, my version of a “mommy blog.” But the main focus of my blog isn’t me or my experiences. I am aiming to build a resource for parents/caregivers that is medically accurate and evidence-based, yet still easily accessible. 

One of the biggest issues in the internet age is misinformation. It is so easy to find answers to your questions, but so difficult to verify those answers. And in many cases that can be dangerous. When it comes to parenting especially, everyone wants the best for their children and first-time parents in particular are turning to the internet to answer questions ranging from “how to swaddle newborn” to “does this poop look normal?”

Photo | Jeremy Mo

Photo | Jeremy Mo

When I had my own daughter, I had all the same questions. But as a family doctor in Canada, I had the resources to compile medical papers and research studies to help me along. I wanted other people to have access to the same information that I did, but medical studies aren’t exactly a beach read. People usually look to blogs and forums for advice instead. When I browsed some of these mommy blogs, I was disturbed at how many of them were promoting incorrect facts or unfounded claims. Vaccines, sleep training, and food allergies were among some of the more frequent victims. It was then that I realized just how easy it is to fall into false beliefs and I knew I had to do something about it.

I started the blog by recalling all the questions I’d had from my pregnancy and beyond as well as questions I would receive from patients. I summarized the research in my posts, hoping the facts could reach more people. But I’m competing with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and other popular lifestyle and health blogs.These celebrity platforms work because of the figurehead, so I knew I had to put more of my personality into the blog to reach more people. We as a species want to connect and we trust each other more than faceless entities with cold hard facts. Life of Dr. Mom had to grow beyond a few blog articles. I started to use social media to my advantage, putting more of myself and my voice into the project. I shared more personal stories, like when I struggled to breastfeed my daughter. I had always recommended breastfeeding over formula to my patients, but when I was in the hot seat I found out the hard way that it’s not always so easy. 

There are highs and lows of parenting, and no amount of medical school can truly prepare you to raise a child. You’re going to make mistakes, and that’s ok. My blog has two purposes: to offer true, proven medical facts to help inform your decisions when it comes to your baby, and to show you that nobody, not even the people who pretend to be, is perfect.

Instagram: @lifeofdrmom

Facebook: Life of Dr. Mom - Stephanie Liu

Twitter: @LifeofDrMom1

Pinterest: Life of Dr Mom

FEATURES

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4977913

https://www.folio.ca/u-of-a-family-doctor-offers-evidence-based-mom-blog/

Interview with Su-Ling global Feb25

MAD LOVE MONDAY | Kendra Adachi - Health Coach, Plantbased Chef + Cannabis Educator

MEET KENDRA

HEALTH COACH, PLANTBASED CHEF & CANNABIS EDUCATOR

My name is Kendra Adachi. I’m a certified Integrative Health Coach, Plant-based Chef, Cannabis Consultant and life long student of personal development. I’m often asked what exactly does this all mean and what do I “do”?

Well, I work with people who acknowledge that their current circumstances are not desirable. They’re aware that their habits and behaviours are subtracting rather than adding to a life of optimal health and vitality. They could use a revamp in order to become the person they desire to be.

Together we emphasize on mindset, food for mood and establishing proactive tools to support their journey of self empowerment. I do this via one on one coaching online, speaking, immersive workshops and co-hosting retreats.

Whether it be feeling comfortable in their skin, feeling stuck and bored in a career and routine or simply needing a someone in their corner to hold them accountable in order to achieve desires and goals they have for themselves and their life. That’s where I come in.

I get to know where they hold themselves back, why and where they wish to be. Through addressing lifestyle and behaviours we create heightened awareness of self, new habits and ultimately an existence they honor and are genuinely grateful for that is unique to them and their needs.

I get what it’s like to feel frustrated knowing the choices I make hinder optimal physical health, career satisfaction, relationship healing and overall performance in life at my greatest capacity.

The frustration of getting in our own way. This is why it’s beneficial to have an outside perspective that will support and hold accountable to the changes that you say you’re going to make yet never seem to accomplish. This is because they have a different perspective and can see what you choose not to.

I do what I do now because of my own needs of healing. I was diagnosed with severe depression in my late teens and as a result, I had the opportunity to take a serious look at my lifestyle habits that were subtracting my growth and my quality of life opposed to healing and adding to my life’s experience. During my mental health journey (which is ongoing because I’m human) I experienced the traumatic loss of my first love, Alex, to suicide. This, was a catalyst to step boldly into the world of serving and supporting others who may find themselves in a place where they feel heaviness and alone. I’ve had the opportunity to be on both sides: being depressed, witnessing depression and losing someone to depression.

As I began to address my lifestyle habits I became quickly aware how nutrition, movement and mindset played critical roles toward my energy and understanding myself in a compassionate and unconditionally loving way. I started to honor myself and created proactive habits that blossomed into an expertise of sorts. After becoming an Integrative Health Coach I understood that the underlying force was to Honor by Health. I live by this motto daily.

What does it mean to honor?: Adhering to what is right or to a conventional standard of conduct; to regard with great respect.

Being half Japanese I was raised with the importance of honor and what it means to live with honor. I started to realize that we can’t truly honor our loved ones, our relationships or purpose if we do not honor ourselves first. To honor by health is to honor others. To show respect for others.

It’s my variation of Jim Rohn’s quote: “I will take care of me for you, if you take care of you for me”.

Along with coaching, I have aspirations to collaborate with like minds in creating non-judgmental spaces gathering a global community that fosters enthusiastic play and compassionate awareness for ourselves, the planet and thus for others.

My most recent and upcoming retreat with my dear friend Aly Paws is this July 11-17, 2019 in Casperia, Italy called The Love Affair in Italy! We speak about this in greater detail on social media such as instagram and facebook.

I have a goal to create in person immersive experiences that will run globally bringing together women and men to encourage authentic connection and expression cultivating the embodiment of what it is to feel acceptance of our unique amazing selves, whole and enough.

Doing this work has empowered me to honor my personal needs and desires. I used to fight against my innate calling of becoming an entrepreneur as I didn’t feel I had what it takes or that I could ever accomplish the dreams that I had for myself.

The more I grow into my business, I grow into myself. The experiences I’ve had of working in jobs that weren’t completely soul nourishing were opportunities for me to discover what lights me up and what holds me back. Being on this path as an entrepreneur has been spontaneous, exciting, liberating, terrifying and incredibly rewarding. There are moments where I fall back into my limiting beliefs of not being able to ‘succeed’. However, when these feelings show up I always voice them into the world, share with my personal coaches and people who’s feedback I value and respect who remind me that the work I’m doing has a profound purpose.

We all have a profound purpose and our work matters. People need what I do, people need what you do. It  matters. Coming back to this knowing helps me get out of my own way and continue to serve. There are greater matters at hand.

When I find myself in these states I often share my human experience on social media which are instagram and facebook as well as by newsletter for those who subscribe to my website. I do this as catharsis (writing as therapy) as well as a form of connecting with others because I know that I’m not the only one who feels these emotions. I encourage everyone to share and show their humanness. You just never know who may need to read or hear your words that can shift their mindset and create healing.

We are all connected and we can forget this when we remain silent.

Work life balance is an ongoing process for me. The thing is that I love what I do so it doesn’t feel like ‘work’. However, what I have come to know to be true is how this can affect close relationships. The key to this is radical honesty and great communication.

I also encourage establishing non negotiables such as a morning and nightly routine that is solely for self-care practices. Set up boundaries for what your needs are and honor them. By doing this we teach others how we wish to be treated, they will witness and may establish a ritual for themself.

In sharing all of this I have hopes to create connections within the YEG Boss Babe community and beyond in order to give and receive support, create friendships and impactful memories with the purpose of doing good in this world. I believe tribe, community and sisterhood are vital toward an empowered and thriving life.

Website: www.adachikendra.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adachikendra/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kendra.adachi.3

TIPSY TUESDAY | How To Be a Better Reader - Candice from Magnolia Reads

Written by: Candice S | Magnolia Reads

Hello friends! My name is Candice, and I am a book blogger based out of YEG.

I LOVE reading and have been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember. I started reading early and my parents were always more than happy to indulge my never ending thirst for more books, the next story, a new set of adventures. I avidly collected The Babysitters Club books, then the Sweet Valley Junior High novels, and of course eventually graduated to the Sweet Valley High adventures. Elizabeth and Jessica were my wonderfully unrealistic expectation of high school (all the more so considering I went to a high school in a tiny summer village where the grand total of students topped out at around 47). I cannot remember a time when I didn’t have a book on hand.

This casual hobby of mine followed me right on in to adulthood. I would read books and trade recommendations with friends, and it was never something I really thought about to hard. Until I joined Instagram.

Suddenly this brand new world opened up to me – there was a whole COMMUNITY of people who were dedicated to reading books, reviewing books and chatting about all the bookish things. I was hooked on Bookstagram from the beginning – think of all the new books I could find out about, and tips and tricks I could pick up for how to read MORE! One thing led to another, and before long I found myself running a book blog of my very own and reading advanced copies of upcoming books for authors and publishers all over the world. It has been a BLAST.

Somehow this has landed me as an unofficial reading authority, and I often get asked some of the same questions over and over again – how do you read so many books and how can I start reading more in my own life? Let me let you in on some bookish secrets…….

First, and most importantly, full disclosure: one of the biggest factors of why I can read so many books in a year (I average between 125-150 books a year) is because I am a natural speed reader. Chalk it up to genes or practice or a combination of the two, but it there is no magic trick to what I do. It’s also important to remember that reading fast does you no good if you aren’t retaining what you are reading, which is why I will always adamantly tell new readers that speed DOES. NOT. MATTER. Read at your own pace, this is not a reading race!

There ARE however, ways for just about anyone to become a BETTER reader:

1 – Practice

Honestly, practice makes perfect. The more I read, the better I become at it. It’s working your brain in a very specific way, and like working any muscle, consistent and repetitive action will make it stronger. I can assure you that if you start reading consistently even a few times a week, you will find your reading pace picks up in no time.

2 – Consistency

I read every single day. I might not read a lot in a day, but I read every day. This is because reading is my personal key to unwinding in a day – I would much rather pick up a book than turn on the TV or stare at my phone, but that’s not to say that is everyone’s preference. You don’t need to read every day to be a better reader, but finding consistent time in your week to dedicate to a bit of reading will certainly help. This can be in any small way – read a chapter with your morning coffee before your day starts. Maybe you take your book with you, and read while you have your lunch at your desk. Or my personal favorite, reading right before bed.

Science already tells us that staring at screens before trying to go to sleep is incredibly disruptive to our sleep patterns, but reading a book before bed?

No problem at all! (Well….unless the plot pulls you in and suddenly its 2 am and you are waking up your partner to explain that you NEVER SAW THAT TWIST COMING. But this is a risk that is worth taking!) Just make a choice to dedicate some set, non-negotiable time to read in your week. Before long you will have a reading habit on your hands, and making time won’t seem like such a hard bargain into your schedule. You might even end up with your own book blog!

3 – Preparedness

I always have a book on me in some form, because I NEVER KNOW when I might find myself with a few spare minutes to jump in. This is so easy because books come in every conceivable form in this day and age. I might remember to grab my physical book on the way out the door, or I have a Kindle that I could be reading on, and it’s easier to pack along. And if my Kindle isn’t with me? I have the Kindle app on my phone which syncs to my Kindle at home, so I can just pick up where I left off. NO PROBLEMS HERE!

How often do you find yourself in a day, with little chunks of time to kill? Getting your oil changed? Reading time. Waiting for your lunch? Reading time. Kids hockey game hasn’t started yet? Reading time. It may seem like you have no spare minutes in your day, but when you start looking for them, you will find them cropping up EVERYWHERE. The biggest hurdle to this one is not giving into the natural reflex of scrolling through your phone in those time chunks. Instead grab your book and squish in a couple chapters. You will be amazed by one, how productive you feel, and two, how quickly you find yourself finishing books all the sudden. Plus, there is the added bonus that you are cutting way back on internet zombie hours in your day, stopping you from taking the 37 th Buzzfeed quiz of the week about which Mean Girl you are most like.

4 – Find your format

Personally, I prefer a physical book. To be more specific, I prefer a trade paperback above all else (the slightly bigger, floppy kind). That is the most comfortable format for me to read in, and what I am drawn to most often. But as I mentioned, I have a Kindle, and I have gotten much better at reading on it in the last two years. It might not be as pretty, and it lacks the new book smell, but it really IS so convenient especially if you are a) reading in the bathtub or b) trying to eat/breastfeed/walk the dog/vacuum at the same time.

I’ve also started dabbling in audiobooks this year, which are great because you can listen to them while ACTUALLY doing a second activity including driving, cleaning your house or cooking dinner. Plus, I must admit, some of the voice work done on audiobooks has completely enhanced the experience of the book for me in a way I never would have considered had I read it myself. This is to say – find the format (or formats) that best work for you. You’ll be more compelled to read if you are comfortable doing it.

5 – Read what is interesting to YOU

This is the great trap that readers regularly get caught in. You feel like if you ARE going to dedicated your valuable time to reading, you should be reading something specific – maybe a professional development book, or that hot new mystery thriller that you keep hearing about (even though you hate mysteries), or possibly a classic because you really haven’t ever actually read anything by Ernest Hemingway, despite the fact that you were very excited to visit the Hemingway bar in Cuba on vacation last year.

Don’t. Do. It. This is the quickest way to sabotage yourself because I promise, you will NOT enjoy reading that book you don’t really want to read, which means you won’t make time to read, which means bingo bango, you aren’t becoming a better reader. There is literally no wrong book to read as long as it sparks an interest for you. Maybe you want to completely disconnect and read a trashy erotic romance novel – DO IT. Perhaps you have endless interest in reading true crime novels – GET THEM ALL. Hell, maybe you are the person who just devours leadership books like M&M’s – FILL YOUR BOOTS. The key is never WHAT you read, its that you are READING. Reading for pleasure should be…..well, pleasurable. If it’s not, you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere. Put that book right on down, and find yourself something else that sucks you in.

It is as easy as that. A few quick tricks and within days you will be feeling like an unofficial reading authority, just like me! Joking aside, there is one last secret to let you in on – you are ALREADY a reader. You’re reading this aren’t you? Exactly. Don’t be so hard on yourself. A book might take you a day, or a week or a month to finish, and that is JUST FINE. You might not finish every book you start because it wasn’t the right fit for you as a reader and that is JUST FINE. You might fall completely in love with reading and how it makes you feel, and pick up MORE books, and that too, is JUST FINE. Reading is the easiest thing to fall in love with, so let those books do the wooing. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride.

Candice S | Magnolia Reads
Website: https://www.magnoliareads.com/

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/candicesawchuk

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/CandiceSawchuk